By Tiernan Ray

Morgan Stanley‘s Doug Anmuth today reiterates an Overweight rating on shares of Facebook (FB), and an $80 price target, writign that his review of data about online usage from research outfit comScore suggest demand for ads on the service “continues to build” and that “engagement is strong” of late.

For February, Facebook’s share of time spent online is rising, he writes, especially versus Twitter (TWTR) and even Instagram, which Facebook owns:

Facebook showed strong mobile metrics in February as Facebook’s share of mobile minutes (smartphones only, excludes tablets) in the U.S. grew to 22%, up from 21% in January and 20% in December, widening the gap with other services (Instagram, Twitter, Whatsapp, Snapchat) combined which have been more flattish at 5% since July 2013. Facebook’s total share of minutes in the U.S. across both mobile and desktop grew from 14.8% to 17.7% over the past year, but declined slightly from 18.2% in January. Other services combined held flat at 3% from January and we note that Facebook’s U.S. minutes are still ~6x greater than minutes spent on the competitive services noted above. If we were to include Instagram and Whatsapp with Facebook, total Facebook minutes grew 31% Y/Y in February, a modest deceleration from 34% Y/Y in January. This compares to Twitter’s 45% Y/Y growth in February total minutes, down from 65% Y/Y in January.

Anmuth even offers a table comparing the relative engagement levels for the different services (click for larger image):

That said, overall minutes, on average, declined from January, which Anmuth thinks may be just a factor of a shorter month, among other things: “Facebook’s U.S. minutes for both desktop and mobile declined M/M in February, which we think could be attributed to seasonality as January likely benefitted from new mobile device sales and fewer days in February.”

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.